Review: Batman Arkham Asylum

I have to say that without a shadow of a doubt that Batman: Arkham Asylum was the game that i was most looking forward to playing this year. I have mainly been looking forward to it because i am and always have been a fane of batman. Despite this i didn't have high hopes for the game originally because i find practically all superhero games to be awful like Spiderman 3 for example. However once i had seen the trailers and some of the actual game footage i was convinced that this game would be different. Also its age rating and the clear size of Batmans ***** showed it was not a kiddy game, screw you spiderman i don't see you with a giant *****!

Basically the plot of Batman: Arkham Asylum is; the Joker secretly pays a doctor at Arkham Asylum (Dr. Young) to create a formula (called titan) for him made from the venom in Banes blood that he intends to use to create an army of mutated Joker henchmen. Unfortunately Dr. Young has a change of heart so the Joker gets himself captured and taken back to Arkham so he can escape and take the formula himself. Batman must then venture into the heart of Arkham Island in an attempt to stop Joker. As you progress thought the campaign you will be guided by oracle (batgirl) through your communicator. The fighting system within the game is very simple and easy to pick up. However as you pull off higher combos you will earn more points, which you must spend on upgrades and new equipment if you hope to keep an advantage over the enemies.

Along the way you must fight Joker henchmen and fight some of his arch enemy such as Killer Croc. Unfortunately some of these boss battles are very badly done. Such as the you battle with Poison Ivy which consists of you standing in front of a giant plant dodging attacks as you hurl batarangs at the plant until falls to the ground and you try to blow it up with explosive gel. Personally i found this very repetitive and not much of a challenge. However some boss battles such as the killer Croc battle despite being boring because you just have to quietly creep around a sewer kept you alert and on the edge of your set because all would be quiet and you would never know when or where he would pop up from when he trys to get you. For a final note on bosses i really need to warn you that despite the Joker being an amazing villain and you getting to see a real insight into his crazed mind the final fight with him however is a real let down but it goes without saying the Mark Hamil (YES LUKE SKYWALKER) was a perfect chocie for the Jokers voice. Both batman and the joker are voiced by the actors that voiced by the same two people who where there voices in the 90s cartton series. It is boring, repetitive and has no real entertainment value because all you do is fight henchmen, pull him over with your grapple and dodge his attacks over and over.


Despite the badly set out boss fights the villains are made more dark and gloomy by there bios which tell you facts about them and allow you to see what they are really like. The main super villains such as the Joker, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and so on have audio taps within there files which are either recorded messages or interview tapes. However these are not available to you from the start, they must be earned by finding collectables. Spread across the island are 240 collectables, these collectables are linked to rewards. By scanning certain things you unlock bio, by collecting audiotapes you gain access to the patient’s tapes and so on. I think that despite the fact that there is a large number of collectables (240) that they are worth finding because they give you so much in return such as the story of the spirit of Armadas Arkham who im not going to tell you much about because as far as i am concerned it is a very interesting set of collectables that you must see for yourself. Also you should easily be able to find over 50% of the collectables yourself on your first play through because the majority of them are in plain view and also there are Riddler maps spread through out the island that will give you the location of collectables on your map. Lastly once you have found every single collectable you will hear the Riddler being arrested by police over your communicator.

Once you have completed the campaign and got all the collectables you will find that there is not much to do because of the lack of multiplayer which is understandable because i don't see how you would go about creating a multiplayer for a batman game. However we have been given challenge mode. Challenge mode is a series of maps adapted from campaign levels and are made up of combat and predator challenges. Predator challenges are where you get to use your gadgets to take out a certain number of hench men in as little time as possible, in this mode you get medals for completing certain challenges such as knocking 3 people over with 1 remote controlled batarangs. These challenges are fairly straightforward. I'm 47 in the world on one of the maps GO ME! Whilst combat challenges are where you have to score points to earn medals by building up combos as you fight waves of hench men, this is easy to start with but get harder as you move into the extreme maps. Sadly once you have done these you will be left with nothing to do but leave the game to gather dust on a shelf.

Finally the achievements the game has. The achievements for this game are mainly based on game progression and collectables which makes it relatively easy to get over 500 gamer score but you may find it tricky to acquire the last couple of achievements because they are very hard. The hardest of them to obtain is the achievement for 100%ing the game, which requires you to get all collectables, bios, trophies, complete, all challenge rooms and complete the campaign. For a fall list of achievents please click here Xbox360Achievements.org - Batman: Arkham Asylum Achievement List.
Over all i would give this game an 83/100 because despite its flaws it offers a great story and a glimpse into the minds of the criminally insane. Also theres just somthing about the game that makes you want to keep playing it.
YouTube- Batman: Arkham Asylum Joker Trailer

 

I keep trying to get my friend to borrow it or at least take a quick play but hers so convinced it sucks he refuses to play it.